Events - Issuu

from Beyond the Barrier Winter 2021

by Loughborough Schools Foundation Development Office

Giving Back

EVENTS Loughburians Go Live Talks

Around 140 alumni joined us online for talks this year.

You can listen to these talks online: vimeo.com/user128069309

Johnnie Johnson

18 February 2021 • John Weitzel (LGS Archivist)

LGS legend John Weitzel illustrated the life of fellow LGS legend Johnnie Johnson.

Who is going down the fat trap?

28 June 2021 • John Weitzel (LGS Archivist)

On Friday 28th June 1996 Her Majesty the Queen visited Loughborough Grammar School. Pupils from all the Schools enjoyed the occasion despite the terrible weather, but there were few there that day who will have appreciated the huge amount of preparation that went on behind the scenes to ensure the visit ran without a hitch. 25 years to the day, John Weitzel tells the story of this eventful day.

The Life and Times of CPT

6 May 2021 • John Weitzel (LGS Archivist)

John Weitzel guided us through the extraordinary life of Colin Tivey (CPT) and his contribution to the history of the School as both a pupil and long-standing member of staff . CPT is oft en a feature of school-based recollections we hear from our alumni. As well as hearing a potted history from John, there was a wonderful opportunity for our audience to participate and share memories. It was a very moving evening.

Mental Strength for Success in Life

25 March 2021 • Matt Bull (Class of 1998)

Matt, Director of Coaching at Action Coach, looked at how you can deal with pressure more eff ectively and make it your friend not your enemy. Participants were invited to consider resilience, overcoming fear, the power of choice and the cost of allowing fear to block opportunity.

DECADES DINNER 10 & 20 Year Reunion

25 SEPTEMBER 2021

The coronavirus pandemic meant we had some catching up to do with our year group reunions so this September the Classes of 2000, 2001, 2010 and 2011 came together for a combined 10 and 20 year reunion. 62 alumni from all three Schools enjoyed tours and a delicious meal before reminiscing over the archive tables.

Don and Pat Wood Commemoration

28 AUGUST 2021

On 28 August 2021, on what would have been their 73rd wedding anniversary, we were delighted to host a small gathering of family and friends to celebrate the lives of Don and Pat Wood and to dedicate Lecture Theatre (L1) at Loughborough Grammar School in their memory.

Don was a classics teacher at the school for 34 years. Involved in all aspects of school life in his time at LGS, from CCF to ballroom dancing, his dedication to the school was matched by his wife Pat. Even in retirement, Don served the school as Chair of the OLA for a further 23 years. Learn more about them in the Winter 2019 edition of Beyond the Barrier which you can find on the Resources Section of Loughburians Live.

The Don and Pat Wood Lecture Theatre was officially dedicated to the couple following an ‘In Memory’ gift from Don’s nephew Brian Wood which enabled the complete refurbishment of the room. Don’s wish was to be reunited with Pat and be laid to rest at their beloved LGS. The commemoration, conducted by Canon Tony Cox, former LGS Chaplain, included a time for reflection during The School Hymn and an ode to a Teacher’s Great Expectations.

If you would like to remember your School in your Will, we would love to be able to thank you in your lifetime for your generosity. To find out more about in memory giving and leaving a legacy to School, or to discuss, in confidence, your intentions in more detail, please contact Natalie Savage in the Development Office on 01509 638921.

QUAD FEST

CLASSES OF 2020 & 2021, 10 SEPTEMBER 2021

The first Loughburian event for the ‘Class of 2021’ was Quad Fest. This opportunity enabled students from the three schools to see each other one more time before departing on their post-18 journeys. We were joined by the year preceding us – the Class of 2020.

Guests flooded through the school gates and under the tower (a walk which once seemed so regular) at 6pm whilst being snapped by the photographer and then receiving their food token and Loughborough Alumni Association cup for the night.

Quad Fest aimed to provide alumni and staff from the previous two years an opportunity to catch up after a long summer and to acknowledge the fact that both year groups missed the usual leavers’ celebrations due to the pandemic. With around 250 attendees, the sun shone, the live band played, and both alumni and school staff made great use of the open bar! Guests gathered in groups and reminisced about both the summer and Loughborough Schools Foundation - a great opportunity to relive fond memories. Food vans allowed no one to go hungry on the fine Friday night after which many alumni seized the chance to celebrate together in Loughborough.

The event was seen as valuable by all and opened the door for future events and reunions which are highly anticipated in the years to come. My thanks go to the Development Office which yet again did an outstanding job of bringing the Classes of 2020 and 2021 together for a fantastic night. At the same time, Quad Fest provided the newest Loughburians the opportunity to view the newly-turfed Quadrangle after 102 years of use. Finley Parsons (Class of 2021)

Heritage Open Day

18 & 19 SEPTEMBER 2021

Postponed from the 525 celebrations in 2020, John Weitzel’s plans to open the Grammar School archive and tower for the first ever Heritage Open Day to the wider community, finally happened on 18 and 19 September.

Over Saturday and Sunday more than 300 people visited the School and climbed the landmark tower to survey the fabulous views and splendid grass on the quad. Visitors ranged from those interested in local history to curious locals who always wanted to look inside - and of course we were delighted to welcome so many alumni.

The Open Days afforded a number of alumni the first opportunity to come into the School since the 1950s, retelling their experiences of Mr Murray of whom the Biology department is named. Also attending was John Mulcahy (Class of 1951) whose mother, Clair Mulcahy, was the first female member of staff at LGS teaching English and Latin between 1941 and 1964. Many current staff and pupils attended and climbed to the very top of the tower for the first time. The visitors also had the opportunity to see pictures from the Victorian period of the School, the original school contract, profiles of those old boys lost in the world wars, a Johnny Johnson display and access to the expansive digital school archive. We were encouraged to open again for Heritage Open Day 2022 and perhaps for that we will open up the WWII air-raid shelter!

HEADLINES

Dr Christopher Barnett LGS Headmaster

It was a great privilege to be asked to become the 36th Headmaster of the Grammar School, and I am much enjoying the first of my three terms here. My wife, Shirley, and I have much appreciated the warm welcome we have received.

The whole-school assembly in the Hodson Hall, with which we began the School Year, was a very special occasion when nearly 1,000 boys and staff came together. For many boys, it was the first occasion, because of COVID-19 restrictions, when they could experience an event of this kind. For all of us, it was a welcome sign of a return to normality after all the restrictions of the past 18 months.

Staff and boys alike have shown their commitment to the School in so many ways already this term, excellent academic endeavour being matched by the skills on display from our sportsmen, great musicianship and many other strong, co-curricular contributions. The current 16As, as yet unbeaten this season, are a fine young side and promise much as they progress into the Sixth Form.

The most impressive event of the term so far has been the Remembrance Service held in our historic Quad. The CCF contributed with distinction, all its members showing a calm professionalism typified by Patrick Culshaw, our superb bugler. The whole School assembled on the immaculate lawns for the first time since they were re-laid this summer, having lain undisturbed for the previous hundred years. I chose Marian Allen’s haunting memorial to the fiancé she lost in 1917, from her poem The Wind on the Downs, to represent all those men from the Grammar School who died in the First and Second World Wars and subsequent conflict, read by our Senior Deputy, Mrs Foster. It begins:

I like to think of you as brown and tall, As strong and living as you used to be, In khaki tunic, Sam Brown belt and all, And standing there and laughing down at me. Because they tell me, dear, that you are dead…

Our wreath-laying, the playing of the musicians, the singing of ‘Oh God, our help in ages past’ and John Marsden’s memorable display in the Tower, entitled The Cruel Sea, completed a very moving commemoration of which all of us can be proud to have been a part.

For our Diwali Assembly, with candles, drummer and poetry readings in what was Poetry Week, I contributed a few verses of my own, including

Where darkness now a conqueror meets, Millions of lights, in homes and streets, In sparkles, swathes and shafts so bright Little by little overcome night...

…With family and friends and neighbours too, The Festival is spent, now also with you, As Rama, Sita and Lakshmana return May the spirit they light up forever burn.

Respect for everyone, for the history, culture and beliefs of all those who make up this school community, has been one of the common threads running through our assemblies and our LGS lives in general. I believe it is one of the Grammar School’s greatest strengths.

Earlier in the term, we welcomed Joe Choong, Gold Medallist in the Modern Pentathlon at the Tokyo Olympic Games, to the Grammar School. Joe, a former student of mine, stayed a full day with us, addressing the whole School, meeting boys, staff and parents, and taking lessons in the Sports Hall. The gleaming medal itself, heavier than we had imagined, was a thrilling sight. Now that we have introduced Pentathlon as a sport, perhaps in a decade or so one of our boys will be challenging for honours. Many of our own prize winners were celebrated at Senior Prize Giving, where we welcomed Nigel Mills, Member of Parliament for Amber Valley, back to his old School.

I have set as the principal tasks for my Headship to enhance the education offered to the boys wherever I can, to help them to grow in confidence and achievement, and to smooth the way for my successor. I know already that, when the time comes all too soon, I shall much miss this fine School and its boys who are a great credit to Loughborough Grammar School.

Decades Dinner: 30, 40, 50, 60 Year Reunion

SATURDAY 20 NOVEMBER 2021

We were delighted to welcome alumni from the Classes of 1960, 1961, 1970, 1971, 1980, 1981 1990 and 1991 back to School for our last reunion of 2021. Many were visiting for the first time since leaving School. The tours were a particular highlight with alumni climbing the LGS tower, finding themselves on whole school photographs and reminiscing about ballroom dancing and tableaux.

Welcome to our new LGS Headmaster Dr Daniel Koch

We are delighted to announce that the Governors have appointed Dr Daniel Koch as our new LGS Headmaster to commence in the Autumn Term 2022.

Daniel is currently the Senior Deputy Head (Vice Master) at Bedford School. Prior to Bedford, he was Head of Sixth Form at South Hampstead High School in London, having previously also worked as Head of History and a resident boarding tutor at Worth School in West Sussex.

Dr Koch is originally from upstate New York and has lived in England since 2003. He completed a D.Phil. (Ph.D.) at the University of Oxford supported by an Overseas Research Studentship. He studied History and French as an undergraduate at the State University of New York at Albany on a Presidential Scholarship, graduating with the highest distinction. He spent a term at the Sorbonne, Université de Paris, as part of his degree. He also lived in Germany and taught English as a second language there.

Growing up in New York, he played American Football and Baseball. At Oxford, he rowed in the Christ Church 1st VIII. Currently he coaches rugby and enjoys running and triathlon.

Dr Koch is the author of Ralph Waldo Emerson in Europe: Class, Race and Revolution in the Making of an American Thinker, published in 2012 and recently reissued by Bloomsbury in paperback. He has contributed several academic chapters and articles to various scholarly publications and has written for a range of popular periodicals and newspapers as well.

Daniel and his wife, Laura, are looking forward to moving to Loughborough whilst their two sons, Samuel and Jacob, are very excited at the prospect of living near the National Space Centre and hope to join Fairfield in September.

I am sure you will all join us in welcoming Daniel and his family to Loughborough Grammar School and the Foundation in due course.

HEADLINES

Andrew Earnshaw, Fairfield Headmaster

Looking back to September 2020, I don’t think anybody would have ever imagined that we would still be running our staggered pick-ups and drop offs eleven months later, as well as keeping the children in their class bubbles on the last day of the summer term!

That said, I am incredibly proud of what my staff have achieved over the course of the last academic year in the most challenging of circumstances. The last three weeks of the summer term clearly demonstrated the lengths the staff went to in organising events for the children, enabling them to finish the year on a real high. Having witnessed first-hand the benefits of the Year 6 disco and trip to Twin Lakes in the last week of the summer term, it is certainly true to say that the staff certainly pulled out all the stops to give the children a spectacular end to their final year.

It seems only appropriate at this juncture to take the opportunity to highlight a new and exciting development at Fairfield Prep School regarding Year 6 transition through to Loughborough Grammar School, Loughborough High School and Loughborough Amherst School.

As you are probably aware, particularly those of you who are former pupils of Fairfield, every Year 6 child would normally have to sit an entrance examination alongside other external candidates in January, in order to secure a Year 7 place at one of the Senior Schools within the Foundation.

We are therefore delighted to announce that Fairfield Prep School will now guarantee Foundation Year 7 places for pupils in Year 5 before they move up to their final year in September. This approach will remove the hurdle and the often associated anxieties of Year 6 Fairfield pupils having to sit the Year 7 entrance examinations.

For the first time in Fairfield’s impressive history, parents of pupils who have been at Fairfield since Year 3, will be informed as to which schools their child has been guaranteed a place, based on our internal tracking data. Furthermore, scholarships will be awarded to Fairfield’s top three performing Year 6 boys and girls for Loughborough Grammar School and Loughborough High School, again using our internal tracking data. These six pupils will subsequently be known as the ‘Fairfield Scholars’.

We have also taken a similar approach for entry into Reception from our Kindergarten Unit. Parents of children who join our Kindergarten prior to the October half term will be notified by the end of the Autumn term of their offer of a Reception place for the following September.

This decision will be based on a child’s attitude to learning, as well as behaviour, which will be assessed through ongoing observations whilst in the Kindergarten Unit. A separate entrance assessment in January will therefore not be required for children who joined Fairfield Kindergarten prior to October half term and who will have met the aforementioned criteria. I do hope that you will welcome this as a positive innovation and if you know of anyone who is interested in taking up a place at Fairfield, then please do ask them to contact Mrs Hannah Wyatt, Registrar: www.lsf.org/fairfield

Senior Prize Giving

15 September 2021 • Nigel Mills (Class of 1993)

After 18 months of only ‘virtual’ Prize Givings, the School was delighted to have Nigel Mills M.P. as its speaker in September 2021, having originally been ‘lined up’ to be the guest for the 525th anniversary Prize Giving in 2020.

Nigel joined the School in 1986 from Fairfield and was a prize winner himself winning the Classics Prize in both the Lower Sixth and Upper Sixth before heading to Newcastle University to read Classics. After graduation, he qualified as a chartered accountant and worked with PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte.

At School he always showed an interest in politics and in 2004 he was elected as a Conservative Councillor for Amber Valley Borough Council. Six years later, in the 2010 General Election, he became Amber Valley’s MP, winning the seat with a majority of 536. Since then he has retained the seat in every election, increasing his majority each time.

He is the School’s third MP, following in the footsteps of Sir Samuel Chapman (LGS 1880 – 1886) and Charles McCurdy (LGS 1881-87), and we were delighted that he actually managed to ‘get permission’ to leave Westminster - exactly 100 years earlier, Charles McCurdy was due to host Prize Giving but had to cancel on the day due to parliamentary business.

A Significant First

Clair Mulcahy

When showing alumni from the 1940s, 50s and 60s around the School, one former staff name repeatedly comes up in conversation – Clair Mulcahy.

Clair was appointed to LGS in 1941 and was the first permanent, full-time female member of staff at the school. It is clear from recollections and stories that she was a formidable woman and left her mark on any boy she taught.

In conjunction with her son, John (Class of 1951) – a pupil at the School from the age of 8 – we decided to recognise her achievement and significance in the history of the School with a plaque. This is displayed in B1 where she taught and I was delighted to meet up with John on Heritage Weekend.

John Weitzel - LGS Archivist

Remembering JOHNNIE JOHNSON

(Class of 1933)

Twenty years following his death, the County publicly honoured and remembered one of its most famous sons in two diff erent ways during 2021. In Loughborough, a giant mural, located at the junction of New King Street and Great Central Road, paid tribute to the RAF Spitfire pilot who shot down more enemy aircraft than any other Allied pilot in the Second World War.

Painted by Dan Smith (known as Buber Nebz), the work is part of the ‘Ladybird Collective’ set up by Loughburians Nick Hardy (Class of 1963) and Councillor Ted Parton (Class of 1990) and is on the wall of a property owned by local businessman Andy Moore, proprietor of Print Monkey. Its position is perfect, being between the Cobden Street School, where Johnnie was a pupil until he was nine, and LGS. For the first three years at LGS, until he boarded, he would have walked past this wall on his way to School and back from the family home on Meadow Lane.

The mural was completed at the end of January and then in the Summer, on Saturday 26 June, Armed Forces Day, the School was well represented at the unveiling of a blue plaque at Johnnie’s birthplace—21 Warner Street in Barrow-upon-Soar. He was born there on Tuesday 9 March 1915. John Weitzel, LGS Archivist, spoke about his childhood in both Barrow and Loughborough before Johnnie’s son, Christopher, unveiled the plaque and ended his short address with the following words:

“Johnnie would have appreciated seeing the RAF Cadets here as he always believed today’s youth would serve, if called upon, with the same distinction as he and his comrades did.”

Pictured left to right:- Wing-Commander Peter Sergeant; Christopher Johnson; RAF Cadets Ed and Sam, Councillor Pauline Ranson

The Writing of The Naxos Mysteries, or How to Visit Greece without Leaving the Country

Vanessa Gordon (Class of 1974) talks about her writing and her reunion with retired LHS French teacher, Miss Mary Chipperfield.

Martin Day, the main character of The Naxos Mysteries, sprang into my imagination long ago as I slumbered on a long-haul flight. The plot of the first book, The Meaning of Friday, was outlined before we landed. I scribbled it down when the cabin lights came on and eventually threw the notebook into a desk drawer, there to remain until COVID-19. In the strange vacuum of the first lockdown, I retrieved the notebook. The book was intended to cheer its readers, but it cheered me to write it. It was as close to being in Greece as I could get.

I have spent more than fift een years visiting Greece and travelling round its ancient sites, oft en in the company of archaeologists; my husband Alan and I particularly love Naxos. Naxos is a large Cycladic island with excellent cuisine and a significant historical heritage. The books, therefore, feature Greek antiquities or the beauties of Greek art, as well as the cuisine of the Cyclades and a modicum of Greek wine. There also has to be, naturally, the occasional suspicious death. It’s a rather important element in the genre.

I joined a growing number of writers who use a non-traditional route to publication. The Naxos Mysteries books have been published using an excellent small company called Dolman Scott. I wrote my first ‘novel’ while still at school, inspired by the teaching of Judith Coe and Nancy Rizzo, when this exciting way to get work in front of readers did not exist. If it had, I wonder what they would have written.

Non-traditional publication involves a great many people, not least proofreaders. My favourite reader is my lifelong friend from school, Christine Wilding (née Hughes, Class of 1974), whose comments make me laugh, blush and re-think. My husband’s outstanding photographs of Naxos have provided the images for the book covers. My designer at Dolman Scott is an unnamed person in ‘the Studio’, but I cannot adequately thank them.

The Meaning of Friday, although mostly concerned with an undiscovered Bronze Age site, opens with an isolated shepherd’s shelter on Naxos that really exists. It is a perfect place to hide something. Martin Day is an archaeologist; he is flawed in some ways but is brilliant, a capable and persistent man, so I gave him the job of dealing with what is found inside the shelter. As the mystery darkens and the Greek police become involved, the ‘Viking Policeman’ makes his first appearance, a Greek police inspector with a Norwegian heritage and a passion for working on international antiquities crime. The book’s eventual resolution took even me by surprise, ensuring that I was truly hooked as Martin Day’s creator and already considering his next challenge.

As soon as The Meaning of Friday was in print, I gave a copy to my dear friend Mary Chipperfield. Mary taught me French throughout my time at Loughborough High School, and we met again in 2018. Mary retired to Wales where she and her friends Bron Roberts (Art) and Pam Hadley (Headmistress, Classics) eventually had a house built to their own design with a stunning view of one of the mountains of Snowdonia. I had meant to go and see them long before, but waited too long, and only aft er the passing of both Miss Roberts and Miss Hadley did I write to Mary to off er my condolences. We exchanged letters - hers handwritten in a script that took me straight back to school, mine mostly typed to ensure legibility. Aft er a few months of correspondence, we went to Snowdonia to meet her. I took whatever memorabilia I could find from High School days, including the school magazine which she examined with great joy. Mary has other friends who, like me, are her ‘old girls’, some of whom travel even further than we do to see her. Each one has some special connection with her. Mine has turned out to be books, which I post or take to her, and she gathers together a pile to give to me when we visit. During the long period of Covid-19 when travel was impossible, a great many books made their way to North Wales.

Among the books that I have given to Mary, of course, are my own. She is my best critic. Now, at the age of 98, she still corrects my work. She not only enjoyed reading The Meaning of Friday, she telephoned me to talk about it most days and eventually wrote a letter to point out ‘a few little errors in the text’. She still has very sharp eyes and is a keen love of grammar. She has also considerably enriched our lives, so much so that I dedicated the second book to her. Mary’s Book, as it has become known, is off icially called The Search for Artemis. It gave me

known, is off icially called Search for Artemis

a chance to write about Greek marble, for which Naxos is famous. I was inspired by meeting a marble artist on the neighbouring island of Paros, a creative and charismatic man who is reflected in my fictional sculptor, Konstantinos Saris. Another inspiration was a contemporary oil painting of a Greek girl, simply called ‘Angelika’. I cannot trace the Greek artist or ask permission to use the portrait in the book, but his Angelika has another life in The Search for Artemis.

Before Dolman Scott could bring out Mary’s Book, I was writing the third in the series, Black Acorns (due for publication November 2021). 2020 was a bumper year for acorns; we have six oak trees and had to gather up hundreds of them. This was how I discovered that there are occasionally black ones, the result of tree damage or blight. The idea came to me that this could be a useful metaphor, and the story began to take shape. The book explores Naxos’s stunning Venetian towers, which are interesting places especially if one of them contains a small bronze figurine over a thousand years older than the tower. The Naxos Literary Festival takes place in another Venetian tower, bringing an important character to Naxos and forcing Day to confront unresolved personal issues from his own past.

Any day now I shall send a copy of Black Acorns to Mary. I know she will read it carefully and with pleasure, occasionally wielding her pencil (red pen) and casually letting slip some acute insights.

Vanessa studied English at Exeter University and obtained a doctorate from the University of London (Bedford College). The Naxos Mysteries with Martin Day (The Meaning of Friday, The Search for Artemis and Black Acorns) are available from Amazon as paperback and Kindle editions, and are to order from bookshops. See www.martindaymysteries.co.uk or contact Vanessa on v@vanessagordon.co.uk

A Lifelong Passion

Colin Billyard (Class of 1964)

At the beginning of the first lockdown in March 2020, The King Lear Prizes competition was launched to encourage the over-65 age group in the creative fields of music, art, poetry and story-writing. Inspired, I submitted a children’s song entitled The Ballroom Dancing Ostrich and was delighted to receive a “highly commended” award.

This year the competition ran again and, spurred on by the previous year’s commendation, I entered two songs: one original composition and one cover of a song called Moonlight in Vermont from the Great American Songbook genre (think Gershwin, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Rodgers and Hart, Johnny Mercer et al). The head judge was Julian Lloyd Webber, the celebrated cellist and brother of Sir Andrew.

In August my entry of Moonlight in Vermont was judged to be the winner out of the thousands of entries submitted. This was an honour indeed and Julian Lloyd Webber’s comment was:

“The performance expertly conjures up the atmosphere of a moonlit night in Vermont. Nice, laid-back jazzy chords!”

Whilst there was a small pecuniary award, the act of winning was far greater!

When I was at school, the music masters of those early sixties were “Reggie” Shields, Mr Stevenson and John Moore. Johnny Lello and Mr Kitching were also talented musicians but specialised in other subjects. I well remember Mr Stevenson and Mr Kitching reprising brilliantly Flanders and Swann’s Mud, Mud, Glorious Mud at a school revue in the early sixties in the newly built Hodson Hall. Those masters were all inspirational in their diff erent ways and certainly influenced my love of music albeit blues and jazz were my first choices.

Although my “day job” has been in the sport, leisure and recreation management field, I have played extensively in pubs, clubs, restaurants, holiday parks and for “weddings, funerals and bar mitzvahs”. I have also made TV and radio appearances and met many famous stars of the day such as Frank Sinatra, P J Proby, Shakin’ Stevens, the Two Ronnies, Michael Ball and many others too numerous to mention here.

At 74, I am still playing occasional gigs with like-minded “jazzers” - although I think I am the oldest! I am grateful to the King Lear Prizes competition for providing the motivation to keep playing otherwise my guitar would be sitting in the corner of the room “gently weeping”!

The Ballroom Dancing Ostrich can be found at www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tsx9dsd5FF0

Colin’s version of Moonlight in Vermont can be enjoyed at www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsGtZZL2tBc

Colin would like to encourage all those eligible and interested to get involved with King Lear Prizes – aimed at those over 65, keen amateurs or first-timers rather than professionals, wanting to participate in literature, drama, poetry, music and art. www.kinglearprozes.org.uk

A VOYAGE BEGUN AT LSF

Megan Raven (Class of 2020)

Although school life will always have an academic focus, for me it was those extra opportunities offered at Amherst that have helped set me on my latest journey studying Mechanical Engineering at the University of Plymouth.

My sailing journey began in the summer of 2014 when I went for a week sailing from Brixham to Falmouth with my Guide unit. I fell in love with sailing on tall ships and have been every summer since then! The first four years were with an organisation called the Tall Ship Youth Trust on a ship called Stavros S Niarchos, a tall ship 195 feet in length. She can carry 61 people on board.

Following the sale of Stavros in 2018, I joined another tall ship Tenacious for a voyage on which there was a mixed ability crew and a specially adapted mast enabling wheelchair users to be hoisted aloft. Speaking to one of the Officers on Tenacious, I was advised to try a tall ship race and was accepted onto the 2019 international tall ship race; we sailed from Bergen in Norway to Aarhus, Denmark on the Blue Clipper.

In Summer 2020, I sailed on a fourth tall ship called Pelican of London; we sailed from Sharpness to Liverpool via Folkestone on a voyage sponsored and overseen by Darwin200. Darwin200 is an environmental project looking at the world’s ocean health whilst re-tracing the global voyage undertaken by Charles Darwin in 1831-36 on HMS Beagle. Darwin200 partnered with the University of Plymouth and the ship was fitted out as a floating laboratory to study conservation and wildlife. Our purpose on this voyage was to test the equipment on board in preparation for the global voyage which will take place in 2023-25. In 2020, I travelled the first half of the circumnavigation of the British Isles; this summer, I completed the last third of the circumnavigation of the British Isles from Portree on the Isle of Skye to alongside HMS Belfast on the River Thames, again on the Pelican of London, as part of the second test voyage for Darwin200.

Over the same time period, CCF (Combined Cadet Force) in school was playing a big part in my life. Joining the Navy division seemed like an obvious decision and afforded opportunities for sailing beyond just these. There is very much an ethos of leadership and

2018 Tenacious – We sailed 191 nautical miles in 4 days

teamwork in all that happens within CCF. When working 2019 on a boat teamwork is one of the main priorities as there are lots of tasks needing more than one person Blue Clipper – sailing 937 nautical miles to complete and there are often groups of people working simultaneously towards the same goals on in 11 days different tasks. For example, stowing the sail requires the coordinated efforts of people up aloft working with the sail, and other people on the deck working with the sheets and the tacks. Working in the galley to feed the crew requires three additional people each day to gather the stores and help prepare and serve food to the crew. The crew is split into three watches and for each 24-hour period each watch will be ‘in charge’ with the help of an Officer for four hours at a time, with roughly an eight-hour break between each watch. 2020 Other school activities have also helped develop Pelican of valuable skills I use in my sailing. I gained my Level 2 London – sailed Sports Leadership qualification and completed the 1114 nautical miles in Gold Duke of Edinburgh’s award, my residential being 22 days on the Tenacious. Over the last couple of years, I have focussed more on the engineering side of sailing. When I first started my A levels in Maths and Physics, I assisted the engineer John on Blue Clipper - it was insightful for me to examine the workings of the engine and encouraged me to look for an undergraduate course in Engineering. In the last year I had a chance to physically help Patrick and John, the Pelican’s 2021 engineers. I am now hoping to specialise in Marine Technology in the second year of my Mechanical Pelican of London – On that trip I sailed 1487 Engineering studies. I chose to study in Plymouth as it has connections to the Navy and sailing - my long nautical miles in term ambition is to be a Royal Navy Engineer. 28 days. CCF has been massively influential in my life and I would recommend it to all those students who follow me. The CCF has made it possible for me to have amazing experiences aboard very exciting ships and the sense of achievement of completing tasks as a team. It has encouraged me to go for a dream career in the Royal Navy as an Engineer and I am so grateful for the opportunities that have been opened up to me.

HEADLINES

Dr Julian Murphy, LAS Headmaster

The summer of 2021 saw the completion of the first phase of our plan to turn Loughborough Amherst School into one of the finest and most sought-after independent schools in the Midlands.

The aims of this first phase were to establish a strong and growing word-ofmouth reputation for the school as a place of outstanding pupil care and great academic results; to grow the school above 300 on roll so as to make it much more financially secure for the future; to overhaul the teaching staff and create an unusually effective and tight-knit body of teachers, and, finally, to achieve a strong ‘value-added’ measure in public examination results. All four of these targets have now been achieved. In particular, we have achieved continuous and impressive growth in numbers on roll for several years in a row, and an overall growth of 60% during the last five years.

This summer’s results were 35% A*-A and 42% A*-B at A Level, which was 28% above the national average. At GCSE our pupils achieved 22% grades 9-8 and 42% grades 9-7, which was 14% above the national average. Although the actual grades for results in 2020 and 2021 should be taken with a slight pinch of salt, it is nonetheless pleasing to see that our position in regard to national average results continues to rise year-on-year.

This success is the result of having a firm, ambitious and unwavering vision, and a team of staff with the enthusiasm, skill, and work ethic necessary to make that vision a reality. It has also been greatly helped by the very vocal support and ambassadorship of our parents, to whom we are - as ever - very grateful.

As we have gradually emerged from lockdown, we have taken the opportunity to review and improve many aspects of our community and extra-curricular life. Following parent and pupil surveys, our extra-curricular offering has been thoroughly overhauled, and we are now offering a much wider range of clubs and activities. It is particularly pleasing to me to see the successful launch of our eco-gardening club and our debating society. The restructuring of sports staffing across the Foundation has also enabled us to further improve our PE and games curriculum. We remain very grateful to Loughborough Grammar School for opening access to their afternoon games programme as an option for those of our boys who prefer rugby to football.

The expansion of the school has necessitated the creation of a completely new classroom in the area where my office used to be, along with the creation of a new computing room. We have also created a new Sixth Form Art room, extended the facilities in the Food room and (finally) created a proper department area for Religious Education.

This year has seen us make some changes to our morning rota to create more time for the celebration of spiritual life and the promotion of a healthy reading culture. Friday mornings are now devoted to weekly spiritual life meetings within year groups, with the whole school gathering every third or fourth Friday for an act of worship led by the pupils from a particular year. Staying on the theme of spiritual life, one of the greatest pleasures of emerging from lockdown has been the return of School Mass. My particular thanks to our celebrant, Fr David from St Mary’s in Loughborough, who is working with such enthusiasm and such a great instinctive feel for how to help non-Catholic pupils feel both informed and comfortable in Mass. Thursday mornings see us splitting into year groups for Book Club, in which students select a book from a shortlist of choices presented every eight weeks and then gather in small discussion groups with those who have selected the same choice of book. I am enjoying working with Year 13 in their Book Club, where the choices so far have been The Road by Cormac McCarthy; Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo, and Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell.

This September saw the launch of the second phase of Amherst’s development plan, in which we are turning our focus to the ongoing improvement of the learning culture within the School. The aim here is not just to continue raising examination results, but – perhaps more importantly – to provide our pupils with solid bedrock of growth mindset and work and emotional skills that they can take with them into their adult life. The name we give to this overall learning culture is our Minerva programme, and it is broken down into four main areas of focus, each of which can be expressed as a question or questions, as follows:

The learning environment – are our expectations of behaviour, dress, and academic focus such that they guarantee a calm and purposeful atmosphere and greatly increase the chances of producing strong yet empathetic leaders of the future?

Knowledge and confidence – do we take every step we can to minimise extrinsic cognitive load and maximise intrinsic cognitive load for our learners? Do we take every step we can to ensure the successful transference of information from short to long-term memory?

Learner mindset – do our habitual ways of working and speaking really nurture resilient, creative learners who can enjoy their work?

Articulation – do we force our learners to articulate their thoughts and defend their ideas?

If you are interested in learning more about how our Minerva programme works, please contact the Development Office, who will be delighted to email you a copy of our Minerva booklet.

We would like to congratulate LHS alum Grace Davies (Class of 1999), Senior Deputy Head at Amherst, on the birth of Rory on 3 May 2021. She is on maternity leave at the moment and describes having Rory as the best thing she has ever done – despite the current lack of sleep! Grace is looking forward to seeing Rory’s godfather Richard Winstanley (Class of 2000) back in the UK soon.

HEADLINES

Dr Fiona Miles, LHS Head

When writing this time last year, I could hardly have imagined that two more lockdowns and another disrupted summer were still to come. Students, parents and staff have met the challenges of the last year with incredible courage, empathy and resilience, finding new ways to communicate and maintain our sense of community at Loughborough High school. From virtual parents’ evenings to live-streamed assemblies and online House events, the pandemic has transformed our daily lives and will no doubt leave its mark on the way that we work as a school for years to come.

Once again, public examinations were cancelled and grades were awarded by teachers, following a rigorous and evidence-based process. We are immensely proud of the stellar achievements of our pupils, not least because almost all of our A Level students secured their first choice of university on results day. Half of our Year 13 leavers are now pursuing STEM courses, including 22 who are studying medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine and allied courses. 31 students have chosen arts courses with two applying to specialist performing arts schools. A number of others are taking gap years at home and abroad, including the winner of the Joanna Dyer Travel Award, who will be volunteering overseas with Project Trust.

As we emerge from the long tunnel of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is real cause for optimism. With the relaxation of restrictions this term, we have been able to experience in person the richness and variety of life at LHS. A particular highlight has been our Space Day, launched by Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock, who spoke about her passion for space science, as well as her experience of dyslexia, prejudice and of working in a profession traditionally dominated by men. Younger pupils then followed a space-themed programme of activities which included building a Mars base, firing rockets in the quad and enjoying a range of excellent talks by young female scientists, all of which had been organised by our STEM Co-ordinator, Jo Pellereau, and our Head of Futures, Ruth Grainger. In the evening, 200 parents and pupils attended fantastic presentations and demonstrations, including a fascinating talk about space medicine by alum Lauren Church (Class of 2016). We are proud that LHS continues to be a vibrant, warm and inclusive place, where individuality is celebrated but we know that there is always more for us to do. We have embraced the recommendations of the Foundation-wide review of equality, diversity and inclusion, prioritising our curriculum and staff training over the course of this year. Led by our newly appointed diversity and inclusion prefects, students have been taking the initiative, too, through groups such as Africa Society, FemSoc and Spectrum, and via pupil-led assemblies about Black History Month, Diwali, women’s suff rage and Pride. We are also extremely grateful for the engagement and guidance of a group of LSF alumni who have off ered valuable perspectives and practical support in this area, including careers talks, recruitment advice and support for our “Proud to be...” careers initiative to mark Black History Month.

One of our ongoing priorities is to develop young women as leaders of the present and the future. There has never been a more important time for young women’s voices to be heard and the great strength of LHS is that we are experts in putting girls and young women first. Our students love to hear about the varied life experiences of our alumni and to feel a sense of connection with the wider LHS and LSF families. If you have a life story or career path that you would like to share with us, please do get in touch - we would love to hear from you!

The Joanna Dyer Travel Award

Joanna Dyer was a former pupil of LHS who was tragically killed in action in

Iraq in April 2007, the only former pupil to have died in action since the end of the Second World War. In addition to the memorials at LHS and LGS there is also a tree in her memory at the National Memorial Arboretum.

The annual Award, made possible through a donation from the family and friends of Joanna, calls for demonstration of the qualities of all-round excellence, leadership and potential that are associated with the late Joanna Dyer.

We are pleased to share, following submission of a project proposal and interview, that the Award was presented this year to Honor Place (Class of 2021). Honor is taking a gap year to travel overseas and to teach as a volunteer with Project Trust in Honduras. The adjudication panel were impressed with Honor’s plans which encompassed the spirit of purpose, imagination and adventure which characterised Joanna’s own travels. It is clear a strong moral purpose and a genuine care for others drove Honor’s decision to volunteer to teach abroad.

Honor is looking forward to completing a report on her adventures and to sharing this with us all on her return.